My next race, The Plano Pacers' Holiday Hustle 3K, 8K, and Jr 1K was only 3 days after the December 22 Jingle Bell Run. The race took place at Bob Woodgruff Park in Plano Texas. I chose the 8K since I had never run a 8K before. The distance is about 4.96 miles which means it's comparable to a 5 mile race. My time has been coming down recently, so I decided to join the prestigious Plano Pacers Club which has some of the fastest runners in the area. I should learn a lot from them. The club offers free races every month to their members, but they may have to cut down a bit. They are looking for help running the club this coming year, so if you or someone you know is interested in leading the Plano Pacers team, please let me know. The club has a few big sponsors like Run-On! All of their free races are chip timed, and they offer awards to the winners.
This year, I celebrated Christmas with my two sons on Christmas Eve. For this race, I decided to honor the one who makes it possible for me to be able to run, my Lord and Savior. He has blessed me tremendously this past year and has allowed me to be healthy enough to do what I enjoy the most. As I've said before, I run for my health, and to try to inspire others to try walking and running as a way to better health. Like the organizations that I display on my running sign, which inspired me to begin running, I hope that I can inspire others to begin this wonderful past time.
I arrived early at the event, and waited for registration to get started. I signed up as a new member and picked up a chip timer. I took a few pictures at the starting line, and started stretching. It was a bone chillingly cold 38 degrees so I knew that it was important to warm up properly. I lined up about 2 rows back, and started trying to figure out how to use my new timing device. I bought myself an older model GPS Garmin timer for Christmas, which was on sale for 65% off. I hope it can help me adjust my pace better than the standard stopwatch I've been using lately.
The race started, and I ran on the trail into the park. The 3K runners went left, and the 8K runners went right. Then I ran out of the park in a nice scenic trail run. There weren't very many runners in this race, so it was easy to find my own pace. I started a bit slower than I would have in a 5K since I knew this was going to be a longer race. At the 1 mile marker my time was 8:51, then at the 2 mile marker it was 18:14. I was running in some cold wind, so I was a bit slower, hoping to pick it up after I reached a point where the wind would be on my back instead of blowing in my face.
At the 3 mile marker my time was 27:20. That was when I started to try to pick it up some more. I began running behind two ladies, trying to keep pace with them. I never caught up with them, but stayed just behind them. At the 4 mile marker I caught up with a man in their group who looked like he could be in my age division. I asked him his name (Charlie) before I passed him up. With 1 mile to go in the race, my time was 36:02. I wasn't sure where the finish line was, but I started to give what I had left in that last mile. The final straight away in front of the pavilion was in front of me, and at the end was the finish line. I pushed it as hard as I could.
My time showed 44:23 on my timing device, but my official finish time was 44:53:42 which was good enough to win 3rd place in my division. After the race, I talked with the two ladies that I was running behind. It turns out they were mother and daughter. Both of them won their division, and the guy I passed up at the 4 mile marker (Charlie) turned out to be their husband and father respectively. I barely beat him to place in the top 3. In total, there were 62 8K chip timed finishers, 44 3K chip time finishers, and 6 1K finishers.
After the race, I heard some good news. My son's basset hound Buster started walking, using all of his legs. He is showing some real progress, and I'm very happy to see that he is not paralyzed like we first thought.
You can view the results here.
My line 8K 55 to 59:
Place Bib# Men Overall Overall Finish Time Pace 5K equivalency Score
3/4 6690 35/48 41/62 44:53:42 9:01:8 27:14 65.72
I run to raise awareness for prostate cancer and to benefit my community.
www.runningforacause.tumblr.com
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